It’s one thing to joke about fashion, but another thing to joke about a designer’s spotty past with Hitler.

According to reports, Russell Brand got the boot from the GQ Awards afterparty after making a wisecrack about Hugo Boss’s ominous past manufacturing uniforms for Nazis.

“Any of you who know a little bit about history and fashion will know that Hugo Boss made the uniforms for the Nazis,” Brand said while accepting his Oracle Awards on the GQ Awards’ stage. “The Nazis did have flaws, but, you know, they did look f–king fantastic, let’s face it, while they were killing people on the basis of their religion and sexuality.”

Brand seemed to confirm the unfavourable reaction to his joke in a tweet.

GQ editor: "What you did was very offensive to Hugo Boss."
Me:" What Hugo Boss did was very offensive to the Jews."
#GQAwards#nazitailor

Boss’ connection to Hitler’s regime wasn’t revealed until the designer showed up on a list of dormant accounts released by Swiss bankers in 1997.

In the 1930s, Boss’s family-run business manufactured police and postal uniforms. But in 1933, Boss began advertising that he made clothes not only for the SS (a paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party), but also for the Hitler Youth and the Brownshirts (another paramilitary wing of the Nazi Party).

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